As a member of the Riverside Historical Commission, 47-year resident Constance Guardi is one of a small group of people who have the keys to the Riverside Historical Museum that is operated out of the east well house by the village’s iconic Water Tower.
While the museum is only open four hours each week — from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays — it contains scenes from Riverside’s 150-year-plus history, from its design in 1869 and incorporation in 1875 through today.
Guardi, 82, has been a member of the commission since 2007, when she was appointed by then-Village President Jack Wiaduck.
“He asked me to be on the commission. Little did I know what that was going to mean,” she told the Landmark during a special two-hour visit to the museum on Friday, Sept. 19. “He said, ‘You know, the Historical Commission is not like any of our commissions. It’s a working commission’ … I figured, that’s about seven Saturdays a year [opening the museum], not knowing that was just the tip of the iceberg.”
In the 18 years since then, Guardi has become the author of an “Images of America” book about Riverside alongside former village trustee Lonnie Sacchi and she has spent countless hours dedicated to the village’s history.
Her interest in history preceded her interest in Riverside. Guardi started working as a history teacher in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood in 1964 at the age of 21. Having grown up in the city, Guardi said she had never intended to become so invested in the village before she moved here.
“It turns out my husband’s uncle lived here. He didn’t know the historic value of Riverside; he just knew his uncle was here. We were looking for a house,” she said. “Being an urban person, Oak Park is far more urban, so we looked for a year in Oak Park. Every house we thought we [liked] — sold. We had this wonderful real estate agent … She finally said, ‘Do you know, maybe you want to look at Riverside?’ We came here one day. We came with her, found a house. We’re still in that house. We tried not to stay in it; our goal was five years, and now, 47 years later.”
Within a few months of moving, Guardi said she was recruited by a member of the Frederick Law Olmsted Society board to give tours around Riverside.
“That’s how I really learned about the village, and I just learned to love it,” she said.
Guardi said the museum holds physical files with information on every home in town, an effort that a past historical commission instigated in the 1980s.
“Within each [home’s] folder, there’s a four-page survey that was done to get that started. Whoever lived in that house at that time was the informant,” she said. “It took them a few years.”
Guardi said she was on the commission when the members worked to digitize the records, though they haven’t yet been released publicly by the village.
She said her love for Riverside really began within those first few months of living here, before she became involved at all.
“I have to say that within, I would, say six months, we would walk around,” she said. “I just fell in love with the place.”
Correction, Sept. 25, 2025, 12 p.m.: A previous version of this story misstated the year in which Guardi is pictured at HopStop. It was 2017. The Landmark regrets the error.
